Deutsche Bank CEO: Female Execs Will Make Things 'Prettier'

The CEO of Deutsche Bank has elicited howls of outrage for commenting that a law to require more women in German boardrooms would make business "more colorful—and prettier," Der Spiegel reports. Josef Ackermann made the comments in response to a proposed quota for the proportion of women in company boardrooms. Though Ackermann seems to think he was being friendly—he supports the law and said he hoped there would be more women at Deutsche Bank, too—his perceived regard of women execs as eye candy angered female politicians.

"People who like things more colorful and prettier should go into a field of flowers or to the museum," said the minister of consumer affairs. Echoing the sentiment, a German member of the European Parliament said: "If Mr Ackermann wants more color in the management board, he should hang pictures on the wall. Women in leadership positions don't see themselves as objects of decoration, and that certainly also applies to the female managers at Deutsche Bank."
(More Deutsche Bank stories.)